Why in News ?

Union Electronics and Information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge. It is a part of the government’s vision to become a self-reliant country and give impetus to the start-up ecosystem, innovation and research in the country.

What is Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge ?

It is launched as a part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat aims at invite innovators, startups and students to use these microprocessors to develop various technology products.

• Initiative is aimed at meeting India’s future requirements of strategic and industrial sectors
• Also to create potential to mitigate the issues of security, licensing, technology obsolescence and most crucially cutting dependency on imports.
• The government will offer financial support of ₹4.30 crore at various stages of the challenge for developing the hardware prototype.
• It will be incubating a start-up will be offered.
• The registration process begins on 18 August, the challenge will be spread over 10 months.
• 25 finalists will win total Rs. 1 crore and top 10 teams entering the finale will get the seed fund of total Rs. 2.3 crore and one year incubation support.
• The registration process can be done through MyGov Portal.

There is a growing need of Indian made hard devices under Atmanirbhar Bharath. Need for devices in various electronics, mechanical and in the field like space, defence etc. equipment processing.

Aatmanirbhar Bharat

It aims to making the country independent against the tough competition in the global supply chain. Also to help in empowering the poor, labourers, migrants who have been adversely affected by COVID through job creation.

• Five pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat – Economy, Infrastructure, System, Vibrant Demography and Demand.
• The Five phases of Atmanirbhar Bharat are:
  • Phase-I: Businesses including MSMEs
  • Phase-II: Poor, including migrants and farmers
  • Phase-III: Agriculture
  • Phase-IV: New Horizons of Growth
  • Phase-V: Government Reforms and Enablers
• Special economic and comprehensive package of Rs 20 lakh crores – equivalent to 10% of India’s GDP.

Source : PIB

Topic : GS II:- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

GS III : Science and Technology